Does eating carbs before bed make you gain fat?
Carbohydrates: everyone's favourite evening macro. But are those evening carbs – that late-night toast causing you to gain weight? Let's explore this, shall we?
Prefer to watch than read? Then please check out the video below:
How did the myth that carbs before bed make you gain fat start?
The premise that carbs before bed make you fat is largely based on the idea that if you're not burning your body's preferred energy source before bed, then you will store those carbs as fat. This is pretty sound reasoning, but it's incorrect. I have a few ideas on how I can tackle debunking this myth, but I almost feel like if I make too many points, they'll dilute the previous ones. So, I'm primarily just going to talk about a process known as de novo lipogenesis. Don't worry; this is not going to be too complex. Simply put, de novo lipogenesis is when your body converts excess carbohydrates into fat. This is incredibly rare as it's such an energetically costly way of storing body fat. So instead, your body utilises dietary fats for fat storage as that process is as smooth as butter – you see what I did there?! If your body has the option between dealing with the extortionate exchange rate of converting carbs to fat, or just using dietary fats, it will use the latter. This isn't to say fats are bad, just to emphasise the point that carbs don't make you fat. Being in an energy surplus is what drives fat gain, so when in a surplus, your body will use some carbs as energy, take some to glycogen stores in the muscles and liver (glycogen is your body's storage form of carbs), and it'll preferentially shuttle the dietary fat to storage. Is this a problem? No! Because if you're aiming to lose weight, you'll overall be in a deficit, so your body will eventually oxidise/burn that fat for energy.
It always comes down to energy balance.
So, as long as you're in a net calorie deficit – you're burning more than you consume you will continue to shred body fat, even if you enjoy a boatload of carbs in the evening. However, the problem we have is that many of us do, in fact, enjoy a boatload of carbs in the evening, or food in general, because, as you now know, it's not the carbs that are driving fat storage. But if you're eating a lot in the evenings – if it's the evening when you pull out the cheese and crackers. If it's the evening when you pop open the Pringles or bathe in nachos, then there's a good chance that this habit will drive weight gain, as it'll put you in an energy excess. If this is you, I'd recommend avoiding eating in the evenings. So, once you've had your dinner or tea, depending on which part of the UK you're from, it's a good idea to put down the fork, close the cupboards and avoid eating until breakfast time. If you do this, it'll take around two weeks before you no longer get cravings in the evenings. But it will suck at first!
Parting shot
Remember that whether you want to lose weight or gain it, it always comes down to energy balance, which has been shown time and time again in the research. Meal timing, frequency or macro ratios have their place, but are significantly less important.